


A Hard Fall From the Old Tree

by zarabithia



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-03-15
Updated: 2007-03-15
Packaged: 2019-05-20 08:06:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14890745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zarabithia/pseuds/zarabithia
Summary: The first time Lian sparred with Red Hood, he broke fourteen of her bones.





	A Hard Fall From the Old Tree

The first time Lian sparred with Red Hood, he broke fourteen of her bones, eleven of which were ribs. And actually, she wasn't entirely certain that she should call it sparring, as opposed to fighting for her life. But she learned more in that hour of sparring than anyone in her family had been willing to teach her over the past twelve years of her life. Because the basic hand to hand Aunt Dinah had unwillingly taught her, and the archery training her Grandpa Ollie had snuck in past her father's reluctance didn't begin to compare with the lessons she learned on the receiving end of a man who _actually_ thought she was a hero at heart.

Something her family didn’t want to believe. Hypocrites that they were.

When it was over, Lian couldn’t feel her bottom lip, her left eye was swollen shut, and she was coughing up blood from her spot on the ground as Red Hood loomed over her.

But she couldn’t help but ask him, even in her wounded state, for the training her family had denied her.

She’d grown accustomed to reading expressions through masks, so she could tell, even through his hood, that he was laughing at her. Her suspicion was confirmed with the mocking chuckle that seeped through his voice as he remarked, "You know, in my day? Sidekicks were a lot smarter."

Lian bit down a reply befitting her second father, the man Red Hood called brother, and focused on the reason she was here - pick the weak spots carefully, Aunt Dinah had taught her, on the Saturday mornings that the older woman hadn’t been trying to enforce a complete denial of Lian’s heritage. "I’m not a _sidekick_."

She hoped that didn’t sound as bitter to Red Hood as it did to her own ears. No one was supposed to _want_ to be a sidekick, after all.

"So that’s what this is about? Some type of rebellion against the sanctimonious Goody-Two Shoes raising you?"

"N-no."

"That’s too bad," Red Hood said in a manner disturbingly close to cheerful. "Because that’s something I could get behind. Especially if it involves a certain Wingy stepfather of yours."

"You’re good," Lian insisted. "Good enough to evade Batman. Good enough to evade Nightwing. And every policeman in Gotham."

"Gotham cops are incompetent bastards," Red Hood said simply. "And if this is about you wanting to follow in your family’s footsteps, why on Earth would you pick me to train you? Surely _they've_ told you all about my evil deeds?"

"They’re not always right," Lian insisted stubbornly.

"Damn stubborn kid, aren’t you? Careful. That has a tendency to get the cute little sidekicks thrown out of the Cave."

"We don’t have a Cave."

"Damn, they’ve never even shown you the Arrow Cave? That’s cold. And I would have thought that _Grandpa Bats_ would have taken you down in the Bat Cave by now. . Though, I guess if he had, you wouldn’t be bitching about a lack of training, would you?"

"I guess that _Grandpa Bats_ has as much against the daughter of a serial killer as he does actual serial killers."

"Guess so." Red Hood eased his foot off her throat but still kept the gun pointed at her head. Fair enough. She wasn’t moving fast enough to evade him anytime soon, anyway. Not without his permission.

"I don‘t know why you're surprised," Lian countered. "If a mistake makes his own son 'dirt in the sewers,’ why should a kid he’s only obligated through by marriage be any different?"

Red Hood actually did laugh at that point - it was a low, gravely noise that made the saliva and blood in the back of Lian’s throat feel chalky. "Psychological warfare," he noted and Lian didn‘t bother correcting him. If he wanted to read tactics instead of desperation, she could let him. "I’m almost impressed."

"Impressed enough to show me what you know?"

He laughed again, but it was an all together different laugh, the kind that merely emphasized how sore her chest was. "First lesson, baby girl. No one gets anything for free. I train you. Teach you enough of my tricks to make you better, not enough to allow you to be a threat to _me_. What do I get out of it in return?"

"I won’t tell anyone where you're hidden. Or where I learned my skills from."

"That goes without saying." Red Hood waved his gun dismissively at her and Lian vaguely remembered a cramped apartment and a box full of guns. "If I’m going to give the world another Goody Two-Shoes Hero, I need a bigger sacrifice out of you than that."

"I don’t know what else to offer. . . " Distinctly, in the back of her head, she heard Aunt Dinah’s disapproving voice telling her that hadn't been a good idea. Lian ignored it. Fuck Aunt Dinah and her useless _basic_ combat skills anyway.

"I like to plan for the future, Squirt. All us Big Bad types do. So I figure, I train you. You get to be a nice, rebellious adult. And then you come be my apprentice for a year. "

"An apprentice?"

"You prefer the word sidekick? Tell your family whatever you want - that you have to go find yourself, whatever. But for a year, you’re on my turf."

"I can’t. . . I can’t kill."

"Won’t make you. But if you want my lessons, you’ll learn all that I know. Including how the world actually works and not just the rose-colored glasses version that the ‘heroes’ like to shove down your throat."

"An apprentice. That’s awfully _Deathstroke-like_ of you."

"That’s the offer. You can either take it, or since I‘m in a good mood today, get up and leave. Your choice. Personally? I think one year of your life in exchange for six years of training is a pretty damn good offer."

It wasn’t exactly what she’d had in mind, but maybe it was better. After all, a year with Red Hood would show her more about the inside of a villain’s head.

She was, in every way but blood, Nightwing’s daughter. She knew the importance of knowing your enemy in combat. Even if he'd never bothered explicitly teaching that lesson.

"Alright," Lian agreed. "That’s the deal. You train me, I’ll. . . I’ll come be your apprentice. You have my word."

"Of course I do." Red Hood slid his gun away, hiding it in a spot that Lian couldn’t see out of her one functioning eye. "You want to be a _hero_ , after all. And heroes always keep their word."

As he disappeared from her sight, Lian wondered if his parting words should have bothered her as much as they did.  



End file.
